Gained Guitarist (?), Lost Our Booking, and My Sweet Samson 77 Airline Wireless...

A quick blurb about the state of things. We are practicing with a lead guitarist this afternoon at our practice session and seeing if he's a good fit for the band. He comes highly recommended so hopefully things work out and we're back in business just like that. If he isn't the right fit we got another referral for a guy that is a great guitar player as well but he lives in New Mexico. His work schedule is flexible and he would be available for any gig and willing to drive in for a weekly practice. I guess we'll just have to wait and see how things turn out. I'm happy we were sans guitarist for only a few days instead of being one of those bands eternally looking for a lead player and cursed to never gig again. Crisis averted and moving on.

 Every post needs a picture, so why not make it a random funny one?

Second wave of bad news, AUE our booking agency, has dropped us and quite a few other bands from their representation. They have decided to put the majority of their time and efforts into a few bands they have that are full timing gigging and have already established a name for themselves. Life goes on. We're really not too worried about this one though. In recent months it had begun to be more difficult to rationalize our agreement with them. They would call us for a gig across the state and one of us couldn't swing it. We would call them asking to be booked for a connecting gig and they couldn't book us. Cody had a baby so we took a month sabbatical and then Cole left to work in Oklahoma. I think the timing is fine for us to be moving back into booking ourselves. Also we no longer have to pay their booking fee which means more money for us! We don't hold any grudges to AUE and wish them the best on their new ventures.

 Wow.............

In the good news side of things, I got a wireless set up for my harp mic! How over the top is it for a harmonica player to have a wireless rig? Screw you, you don't know me! You can't judge me! All I know is I'll be having a whole lot more fun on stage running around doing sweet David Lee Roth kicks, well maybe not, but I can if I wanted to now. (picture below) I'm trying it out tonight and I'll let you know how it works out.

Samson 77 Airline Wireless Guitar System, awww yeah!!

Other than that we're playing a wedding at a private venue (duh) this Saturday. If anyone asks me to play the Macarena or the Chicken dance, I'm out. If we like the guitarist trying out tonight, tomorrow's show will be the best low pressure dry run for everyone to feel things out. Next weekend on July 16'th we play Kroc's Bar's 2 year anniversary party in Midland. After that, its back on the road and God willing, with a new lead guitarist.

WANTED: LEAD GUITARIST

Attention West Texas guitar players. We are in need of a new lead player. Cole Evans our current lead guitarist has accepted a fantastic job at Oklahoma State University and we wish him the best of luck in his career path. Needless to say, we are in need of a replacement. You must be a quick learner, at a high level of skill, and able to travel across Texas and some of Oklahoma for weekend gigs. We have cross state shows we are looking to confirm and we need a guitarist A.S.A.P. Send all inquiries to Cody at chdgwt@yahoo.com or Drew at texharp@gmail.com.

LOST OUR LEAD GUITARIST AND GAINED A BABY!

Sorry for being MIA the last 2 weeks. It has been a whirlwind of gigs and busy work recently and when I come home it is hard to crack the laptop open and start blogging it up. I'll make a consorted effort to get back on the schedule though. It's funny typing those apology sentences because those are always the last posts you see on those blogs you come across that haven't been updated in 3 years. Those kind of creep me out. Dusty old blogs sitting in the internet's attic.

Anywho, two things of great importance have happened in the last 24 hours that have to be shared. Firstly, the bad news. Our lead guitarist Cole Evans has just been offered a great job in Oklahoma and he's taking it. Just when things were getting so good for us, Murphy's Law has to sneak out of the shadows and bash us in the head with a pipe. Meanwhile, our drummer and sound engineer are both working out of town heavy equipment operating jobs during the week, so even if we do get a replacement guitarist we won't have a drummer here on the weekdays to full band dial him in. Oh the frustrations. In the meantime we have a full summer of gigs. Every weekend starting in July has at least one show booked. Our answer? Until we can figure out how to get a lead guitarist in this town of mostly sub par metal enthusiasts we're going to rely on the Americana formula. Strange is unique, and unique is good. I'm going to take over lead guitar licks with my harmonicas and pedal board, and the band's tone in general will alter slightly to cover the gaps. It'll be a growing pains process, but I feel confident that the end result will be a good set. I'll fill you guys in on the details as the practice sessions hammer out the details. Hey, it worked for Texas Renegade.

Second but most important new news. Cody's wife is having her baby today! Her water broke this morning and they are safely up in the hospital getting ready to introduce Paden Davidson to the world. The band is not the most important thing on Cody's mind, and that's alright. He'll be busy being a new father and discovering the joys of bringing someone into this world. Maybe it'll give him a new direction for songwriting or something fun to transfer over into his creative music process. Who knows, but I'm excited to see how the rest of this summer goes.

We'll be bouncing all over Texas in late July and August. Make sure to check our Myspace page for show dates. If you want to see us on a stage near you and don't see us heading that way, yell at me. I can't say we'll get every request booked right away, but he important thing is that we'll at least know where our fans are and we'll try in the near future to head your way.

The Ranch Jam Midland,TX Saturday June,12'th

Should be a grand time out at The Ranch on Saturday. Bands include Noel Olivas, Treetop Flyers, Charla Corn, Harber & Miller Band, The Cody Hughes Davidson Band (us), Zach Edwards, and then finally headlining will be Kevin Fowler. Like every year expect madness and drinking, along with the sea of under 21 guys and gals falling over from pre-partying too hard. I get to meet Charla Corn for the first time, which will be cool. Also, I get to play some good tunes once the sun has gone down instead of getting a sunburn like the last Ranch Jam we played two years back. Come out for some fun!

Weird poster, but a good time